i had a bout with ich ...my question is???

Question

i have a 55 gallon tank and i had 2 oscars and 12 cichlids in it ..they were doing just fine.....so i went and bought a big plecostmus(sucker) put him in the tank and within 10 days all my cichlids are dead except one and the sucker died too my oscars are still holding on thank goodness...i realized they had a parasite or bad ich not sure which but i think it was ich anyhow, i quarantine all my fish that were left and have been treating them with warm water, salt , and the ich medicine...they are all looking better and are starting to eat again it has been 3 days now...the only concern i have is my oscars are a light tan color and they have red streaks running down their sides wondering what this is and how to help them?

i also need help with this......when i found the ich and quarantined my fish i was told to put bleach in the tank to kill out the ich which i did but now im wondering if i have to put freshwater back in the tank or how long does it take to get the bleach out or what

Answer 1

Wow... you got some bad advuice on the bleach issue. For here on out, never use bleach on a tank or anything going into or onto a tank. Bad news. But it's correctable. Drain the water, remove and completely rinse everything as well as possible with very hot water. No need to boil it or anything, just hot water. Salt, vinegar, and other home remedies aren't helpful in breaking down the bleach, but heat is. Allow it all to dry well. Set the tank back up and treat it with a dechlorinator that is also good for chlorimines. Several on the market are and any one of them will do. To be safe, start the filter before treating the tank and then retreat the tank in about 30 minutes. This will remove any traces of the chlorine bleach.

As for the ick, glad to here they are responding. Be sure you get the heat up really high 87-88 F is good and treat them for at least 5 days after you see the last white spot. Frequent large water changes for that tank will also help the process along. The red streaks on the oscars cold be natural colorations showing up due to the increased heat in the tank. It also could be a bacteria infection or a case of ammonia burn as they are in a uncycled quarentine tank. Photos of the fish would really help in the final determination or the cause. If the large water changes to the tank don;t help the redness in a few days, reduce the heat and see if that makes it go away. If not or if they spread, then you may well have a bacterial infection. The best treatment for a blood infection such as that would be the antibiotic Furanance. More gentle products like Melafix are good for some infections but not for internal infections.

MM

Answer 2

first of all dont use bleach. use something like vinegar and let it soak for a day or two. This will kill anything left in the tank. Then make sure you rinse out the tank very well. If you use bleach, the residue that does not affect us, may still kill your fish no mater how much you rinse out the tank.

It sounds that your fish may have developed a secondary infection. Try using melafix and/or pimafix. these are natural anitbiotics that will fix your fish right up. Many times after ich or any sort of parasite, your fish become susceptible to bacterial infections. This is why you often hear of people treating their fish with more than one medication at a time.

Anytime you get a new fish, it is a good idea, if possible, to quarantine the fish for a few days to insure that he doesnt have anything. Ich is very common amoungst fish, especially when they are stressed, such as being moved from a store to its permanant home. This way he doesnt infect your whole tank, if he does have anything. Also never dump the fish water from the store into your tank. You never know whats in it. Just use a net to catch the fish from the bag and put the fish in your tank.

Hope this information helps and good luck!

Answer 3

dude, you should barely have 1 oscar alone in a 55, thats minimum for 1 oscar, let alone 2 oscars and 12 cichlids, you need to get a bigger tank or take alot of those fish back.